Friday, November 13, 2009

MOTES, BEAMS AND STUFF

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, DC is currently embroiled in a controversy with the government of the District of Columbia:

"The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care."

"Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

"Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

"The archdiocese’s statement follows a vote Tuesday by the council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary to reject an amendment that would have allowed individuals, based on their religious beliefs, to decline to provide services for same-sex weddings."

According to the Archdiocese, the District is the one giving the ultimatum.

"The bill provides no exemption for individuals with sincerely-held religious beliefs, as required under federal law. In fact, one council member opposed an amendment that would have respected an individual’s federally-protected, deeply-held religious beliefs by saying that would encourage a “discriminatory impulse.”

"The committee rejected concerns raised in testimony by the ACLU, the Archdiocese of Washington, the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington and a group of nationally-recognized legal scholars, including Robin Fretwell Wilson, professor at Washington & Lee University Law School. In calling for broader religious liberty protections in the bill, the experts cited well established United States Supreme Court case law under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law that applies to the District of Columbia.

"Under the bill, religious organizations do not have to participate in the “solemnization or celebration” of a same-sex marriage ceremony. An earlier version of the bill also exempted them from “the promotion of marriage that is in violation of the entity’s religious beliefs.” The revised language significantly narrows that exemption to the “promotion of marriage through religious programs, counseling, courses, or retreats.”

"As a result, religious organizations and individuals are at risk of legal action for refusing to promote and support same-sex marriages in a host of settings where it would compromise their religious beliefs. This includes employee benefits, adoption services and even the use of a church hall for non-wedding events for same-sex married couples. Religious organizations such as Catholic Charities could be denied licenses or certification by the government, denied the right to offer adoption and foster care services, or no longer be able to partner with the city to provide social services for the needy."

Never ones to miss a chance to bash Catholics, some Episcopalians quickly seized the opportunity. Diana Butler Bass went bat crap and hallucinated the Spanish Armada.

"I don’t like to criticize other people’s religious faiths or churches. There’s plenty enough to criticize in my own Protestant tradition. In the last year, however, we have witnessed a new authoritarian activism on the part of the Roman Church hierarchy that has an impact well beyond the Catholic Church. This new coercive Catholicism is akin to the development of the Christian Right in evangelical churches in the early 1980s–a religious-political movement that reshaped American culture. This is everybody’s business."

Diana? I don’t want to frighten you but…JESUITS!! The Spanish ships are full of them!! And Captain Drake won’t stop bowling!!

"In the last year, new Catholic politics emerged in the Prop 8 campaign in California where the church invested vast resources of money and leadership to overturn gay marriage; and then did the same in Maine. Last week, in a political maneuver worthy of Tom DeLay, authoritarian Catholic bishops forced a Democratic Congress to adopt the Stupak Amendment undermining the legal right to choice by threatening to torpedo health reform. Now they threaten the D.C. City Council? Using the lives of poor people as a political tool?"

“Authoritarian Catholic bishops forced a Democratic Congress to adopt the Stupak Amendment undermining the legal right to choice by threatening to torpedo health reform” is what “bat crap” means, in case any of you were wondering.

Because normally, the idea that Catholic bishops can force a United States Congress to do anything at all is too stupid a concept for normal people to entertain even for a moment. Seriously, Diana. Cut WAY back on the Dan Brown.

"I don’t want to be alarmist about this."

Yes you do.

"Nor, in this ecumenical age, do I wish to be seen as a nativist calling for a new anti-Catholic crusade. That would be a terrible misrepresentation of these concerns."

No point in locking that barn door, D.

"Nor do I want to offend Catholic friends and family."

Yes you do.

"But it is profoundly disturbing that the Roman Catholic Church appears to be using threats and fear to manipulate a democratic political process to enforce Catholic doctrine regarding abortion and human sexuality. There seems to be a political pattern developing that should cause broad-minded citizens–Catholics included–to ask some serious questions regarding what is happening within the Catholic hierarchy."

I can help you with that one. That’s their doctrine and they’re sticking to it.

"Oddly enough, Roman Catholic leaders have adopted a strategy of authoritarian engagement with the body politic at the very moment at which their church is declining. One in ten Americans is now an ex-Roman Catholic, with numbers dwindling, churches closing, a decline in the number of priests and religious, and with only immigration holding the number of communicants steady."

You’re an Episcopalian, Bass. Project much? The papists rock a billion and change worldwide. You claim 2 mil but most people with a functioning intellect know you barely rock 1 mil if that.

"With the church clearly in crisis, the bishops apparently have chosen to use the sick, poor, homeless, children, the faithful laity, and marginal as tools to increase their public power and influence by coercing public policy to fit their theology. You’d think that they would be looking inward to see what is eroding Catholic congregations instead of lobbying Congress and threatening politicians."

That would mean a hell of a lot more if it hadn’t come from a member of a church that has imposed its theology on the entire Anglican Communion and has endangered the Communion’s existence along with the Communion’s programs to help the very sick, poor, homeless and children about which Ms. Butler Bass claims to be so concerned.

Moving on, John Chane, the Episcopal Gasbag Bishop of Washington, DC got this shot in:

"The Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church have significant theological differences on the issue of same-sex relationships, so perhaps it is not surprising that the social service organizations affiliated with the two Churches have reached different conclusions regarding the effect of the legislation to legalize same-sex marriage currently under consideration in the District of Columbia.

"Our partners in ministry have expressed no reservations about the legislation. Episcopalians understand that none of us has the right to violate the human rights of another individual. That’s the law of the District of Columbia. More important, it’s at the core of the Gospel. I hope that the least among us will not be victimized by the struggle over this legislation, and I pray that people of faith will come forward to provide food and shelter if the need arises."

Actually, John, the core of the Gospel is what Jesus accomplished on the Cross but I’ve got to remember who I’m dealing with here. I hope you’re right. And I got to thinking that as far as shelter is concerned, you could fit a boatload of homeless people in the NatCat. Lord knows, nobody else is using it.

The cathedral here in the Diocese of Missouri, Christ Church, does that or used to. One time, one of them stabbed a woman who worked there to death. She was the mother of a good friend of mine at the old parish and someone I knew quite well but if you want to make an omelette and all that.

Jim Naughton’s commenters keep it classy.

"The RC statement is nothing but more mean-spirited bile from an institution that has lost its moral compass completely.

"The leadership of the Roman Church continues to show itself to be morally and ethically disordered. Objectively disordered, at that, for it is one thing just to be unethical or immoral, but for a church to be so, as in this case, is at odds with their “object.”"

Tobias Haller wrote that last one. To continue.

"They add the crime of blackmail now to their “megisterium’s” other moral crimes."

Spell check not working, D-Bag Michael Russell? And when a commenter suggested that people might want to dial down the rhetoric some, Jim told him:

"I don’t think these comments constitute anti-Catholicism. The Church is rightly subject to the same scrutiny as any institution that functions in the public sphere. No more smearing other commenters, please."

I’ll remember that, Jim. I’ll particularly remember that the next time you or anybody else on the Anglican left accuse conservative Anglicans of “hateful” commentary.

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